Life is like the electrocardiogram with wavelike spikes and dips that indicate a functional heart and a living person. If it shows a flat line, the person is dead. Like the electrocardiogram, our lives are filled with ups and downs. At the peak, we're living optimally. And while a flat line doesn't mean we're dead, we're not making the most of what's available to us. In his book Painful Friends, author Pwaveno H. Bamaiyi (Veno) writes about the ups and downs in life that, if handled properly, would make us better people. The phrase "painful friends" describes the difficult events, situations, circumstances, hardships, temptations, persecution and especially trials that God allows us to pass through on our life journeys so we are better prepared to fulfill our divine destiny. Most of the inspirational stories of dealing with these special friends are real-life events and told the way they happened. As Painful Friends shows, adverse challenges and circumstances can be very painful and destabilizing. But they can also be a beauty to behold. At the end of the day, we can come to realize the pains we passed through were actually the friends that brought us to the place of greatness in life, allowing us to be the best we can be.